The Central Bank of Greece lowered its economic growth forecast to country from 2.5% to 2.3% this year, announced the governor of the Greek Central Bank, Yannis Stournaras, at the general meeting of shareholders.
According to him, the central bank of Greece forecasts economic growth rates of 2.3% in 2024, 2.5% in 2025 and 2.3% in 2026, while inflation levels will decrease this year to 2.8%. At the same time, according to the forecasts of the central bank, the primary surplus of the government budget of Greece (the excess of government revenues over expenses, without taking into account payments on the government debt) in 2023 amounts to 1.4% of GDP, which is higher than provided for in the state budget. In 2024, the primary surplus is expected to grow to 2.1% of GDP. “This improvement is mainly due to the projected increase in tax revenue and insurance premium income due to high economic growth”, the banker explained.
„Government debt is projected to continue to decline to 152.3% of GDP in 2024, at a slower pace than in the previous three years,” Stournaras said. “But in fact, public debt is projected to decrease in nominal terms for the first time since 2019“